Sci-Fi Storm

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory snapped this interesting image – is Apollo giving us a message?

Here is a cool, narrated video showing the launch of Apollo 11 up close using a 500 frames per second camera. If you’ve ever wondered how they protected some of the structures from the intense heat, fire and steam at launch, you’ll learn something here.

This seems to be making the viral rounds, but has since been picked up by the British tabloids The Telegraph and The Sun. A strange, tetrahedral shape (often described as a pyramid, but from what I’ve seen it is more a tetrahedron) seemingly just hovering and rotating in the skies over Moskow. Goa’uld coming for the Stargate, or just God rolling a d4?

“Billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceship was unveiled today. Imagine the delight of Star Trek fans to see that it was named the VSS Enterprise.

Please check out my blog entry on the subject at: http://dailyspace.blogspot.com/2009/12/star-trek-legacy-continues-this.html“ — Yes, this one at least is likely to actually reach space…

The zany scientists at Cool Cosmos have been making interesting yet educational videos based on information coming from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The latest is a mockumentary about making a show on colliding galaxies – featuring a rather smart Felicia Day having a difficult time with the way the subject is being presented, with a little (VERY little) help from Sean Astin. Read More to watch the video, then head over to IRrelevant astronomy for more of their videos.

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NASA’s LCROSS mission, a “cheap” $79 million attempt to determine if there is enougt water on the moon for future use, successfully impacted a Centaur rocket into the moon’s surface at Cabeus Crater, and then followed it with the scientific platform to detect particles in the plume and then likewise impact the surface. However, it failed to produce the “spectacular” plume images everyone expected. It remains to be seen what the scientific data shows. More information is available at the LCROSS mission site. Hopefully we did not anger our lunar overlords…

CNN has an interesting article postulating what it might be like to fall into a black hole, which includes an animation – Read More to see it if you don’t want to go to the article.

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David Martin writes “This is something I came across recently and though I would share it…

Operation Immortality (http://operationimmortality.com) is a project to collect and archive the very best of what humanity is and has accomplished. On October 12, 2008, Richard Garriott, famed video game designer and the first second generation American astronaut, will take this collection of humanity with him to store in outer space when he journeys to the International Space Station.

The archive will include information on humanity’s greatest achievements, messages from people all over the world, and DNA samples from some of our brightest minds and most accomplished athletes. During the month of August, every human being is invited to come to the Operation Immortality.com website to submit their suggestions for our greatest achievements and leave a message for the cosmos. A lucky few may also be selected to add their DNA to the mix and “join” Richard Garriott in this way as he rockets out of the atmosphere.

Enjoy!”

When the third SpaceX Falcon 1 launch vehicle failed to achieve orbit (due to failure of the second stage to separate from the first) it did so with the ashes of 208 people on board, including actor James Doohan (Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott on Star Trek, as if I need to tell you) and former astronaut Gordon Cooper. I haven’t seen much data to know whether the rocket at least achieved “outer space” before it was (presumably) destroyed. It also had 3 satellites on board. Despite yet another failure (the Falcon 1 is 0-for-3), SpaceX founder Elon Musk vows to continue, with plans for the much bigger Falcon 9 pressing forward.

After a bit of scientific amputation, astronomers have again reevaluated the shape of the Milky Way based on data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and reduced the number of spiral arms from four to two. Back in 2005 Spitzer revealed that the Milky Way was in fact a barred spiral, as opposed to a “perfect” spiral as previously thought.